The Need For Speed (Part Three)

Looking back on the whole speed dating experience I think there are a couple of comments that I would make. First off, for all of those who are not as a rule energised by large groups of people, the night can be somewhat exhausting. During each period of eight minutes, I felt almost rushed as if this was the only opportunity (EVER!) that I might have to talk to each person and I had to try and fit everything in. I’d try not to feel as though I was repeating myself as I answered similar questions several times over and I’d try to find out something about each person I met and desperately hope that I didn’t get them all confused. I’d try to give someone my undivided attention for the full eight minutes and then the champagne glass would ding and it would start over again. Unfortunately this didn’t leave much time to make decisions or write comments.

When you start the speed dates, you get a little card to write on. You write your own name at the top and all the names of the people you speed date down the bottom. There is a column for comments (one assumes so you can remember who on earth they are and change your mind later) and a column to write either yes or no. In the interest of being fair, there were some I left as a question mark when I met them but didn't actually write comments because it felt rude to do so in the middle of a conversation. As a consequence of course I was trying to sneak a peek at everyone at the end of the night when I couldn't for the life of me remember who ‘Rob’ was. I don't think I was the only one with this problem though. I believe in the end I decided that if it was a question mark, it was really a ‘no’. The host tells you at the beginning that its better to be generous than stingy cause hey, its good for the ego to have matches the next day and you are not agreeing to marry the person after all, but this I think has its own problems.

I mean its all very well to match with people you think you could at least talk to again but realistically, most of us work and already have some sort of social life. Given this, if you are lucky enough to match with several people, you are all of a sudden adding all these individual contacts at one time. And since you are hardly likely to see all of your ‘dates’ at once and go out together – that just smacks of bad taste – you then have to find the time and the inclination to see each of them separately. Putting down preferences to see several people again seemed like a good idea at the time but I now know it wasn’t something I made work.

All in all though, I did enjoy my evening. I did match with people but sadly I didn’t meet the love of my life. What are the chances really though? When you look at it, you've only just met ten or so other people and how many are there in the world? There is always a chance though and you may just make the friend that can introduce you to your perfect match. So if you’ve ever been curious, give it a go!